Pinot.  ’08, ’09.  Can’t decide which vintage I prefer.  Usually, I avoid speaking in sweeping generalizations about varietals, vintages.  But this is just a fun question I’m posing to myself.  And you.  I know, what AVA’s are we talking about?  That’s why I typically avoid such probes, because of the variables.  But, let’s just talk.  Which do you usually shoot for when on a Pinot safari?  Lately, I’ve been into 09’s…that is until I sipped one the other night, Sonoma Coast, that felt timid, taciturn in its flavor arrangement.  So I went back to ’08, one from Anderson Valley.  I know, the fires, the ever-pervasive smoke note.  Have to say, it was rather tempered, advantageously actually, coupled with wild berry, a little toffee and back-palate spice.  So, I’m back to ’08.  So I thought, till I tasted an ’09 Carneros that seduced me, proselytized me into a vision by which I’ve never before been gripped.  So now I’m a Pinot mess, torn between 2 lover years.  Where do you stand, principally, on the ’08 v. ’09 matter, if it’s even a “matter” at all?  If you saw two Pinots on a shelf, one ’08 while the other ’09, and you weren’t familiar with the producer [and forget the AVA for the moment, and “matter”], which would you pick strictly predicated on year?  And forget how pretty the bottle is…  Just go by that four digit time marker…  Make a vintage-rooted election.  Which is picked???